We are pleased to announce Claudia Losi’s first solo show in Switzerland. With a passion for the natural sciences and the historical and anthropological implications of natural phenomena, the artistic research of Claudia Losi focuses on the relationship between humans and nature, and on travel and exploration as opportunities to gain knowledge. Walking and experiencing places are central aspects of this process, combined with the artist’s interests that range through many different disciplines, from the natural sciences to geography and cartography, literature and poetry. Through the use of embroidery and other techniques, the artist reproduces the rhythms of transformation of lichen, glaciers and geological maps, in an attempt to “sew” an ideal link between nature and human beings. A recurring feature of her work is the idea of the thread, of embroidery as a metaphor of relation; Losi has also undertaken a series of collective projects connected with these practices.

In Zuoz Claudia Losi will present a series of new works combined with earlier pieces, reflecting the inner consistency of her perspective. The central nucleus of the show is the project Biotopes, 2013. These sculptures represent real and imaginary forms of symbiosis found in nature: intimate relationships between organisms of different species. They are composite images recalling an imaginary bestiary or herbarium that feeds on medieval and baroque iconography, folk tales and visions. The starting point for these is a version in fabric and filler, which in some cases is then cast in cement: a humble, porous material that when positioned outdoors will soon became a new sort of “botanical laboratory”.
These works are joined by a series of arborescent sculptures: branches that carry spheres of black yarn (Standing Sticks) and wooden cones extending into roots of papier maché (Roots Nowhere). In one of the rooms a wooden ladder completely covered in graphite lines supports a miniature landscape, a three-dimensional inscription of a botanical microcosm (Su quella scala salirono le mie parole), together with Stazione di cielo, an irregular parallelepiped where the opposite sides are specular, again covered by graphite and inlaid with small nuggets of silver.

Claudia Losi was born in Piacenza in 1971. She presently is in a group show at the MAMBo Museum in Bologna. In 2010 and 2012 she showed work at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, and some of her works are in its permanent collection. In 2009 she was in group shows at MAGASIN Centre National d'Art Contemporain of Grenoble; Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milan; the Royal Academy of London in the exhibition GSK-Aware curated by Lucy Horta and Gaby Scardi. In 2008 she held solo shows at the Marino Marini Museum in Florence, Stenersen Museum of Oslo and Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Also in 2008, together with Hamish Fulton, she showed work at La Marrana Arte Ambientale in Monte Marcello-La Spezia. In 2007 she took part in the Sharjah Biennial 8 in the United Arab Emirates.